**3. Global application and management of chemical pesticides and its regulation**

There is an ever-increasing global population and there has to be food to match the statistics. The United Nations Population Division estimates that there will be a tremendous increase on Earth emanating from developing countries by the year 2050 (9.7 billion people on Earth—around 30% more people than in 2017).

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that, in countries of dwindling economy, Population growth keeps pace with the required increases in food production. This availability of food is seen to be increasing by 80%, and these increases are anticipated to emanate from rise in produces and the frequency crops are grown on the same land per year. This new production of food projected at 20% is likely to come from an extension of farming land [4]. Pesticide usage is almost inevitable in agriculture to maintain high yields and profits.

Pesticides can prevent large crop losses and will therefore continue to play a role in agriculture. However, the effects on humans and the environment of exposure to pesticides are a continuing concern.

Between the years 1970s and 1990s, most governments encouraged the usage of pesticides. This is evident in the amendment of several policies resulting in lessening in input subsidies as well as less monitoring by the government. This further led to more inflow occurring from the informal channels causing enhanced usage of pesticides and, leading to an increased import value by 261% from 2000 to 2010 [5].

In continents like Africa, nearly 59% of the population makes their living from farming, this is because the economy is highly dependent on agriculture [6]. Despite that, the African continent influences 2–4% of the international market for chemical pesticides which also accounts for the lowermost rate of their usage in the world [6]. Owing to the growing population, the food demand was projected in 2005 to enhance at a rapid rate in the next three decades [7]. This projection after the last decade remains valid considering the increased demand for pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

In Africa, the regulatory mechanism for pesticides is inadequate resulting in the import of pesticides that are banned. The farmers also lack awareness which causes poor pesticide practices and the usage of those pesticides which fall under the WHO risk classification system. Also, the registration of pesticides in West Africa is a multi-national process called Comité Sahélien des Pesticides (CSP) [8]. The African market is unregulated and does not comply with the code of conduct laid out by the Food and Agriculture Organization due to which most of the pesticides used are untested leading to the enhanced risks.

According to reports showing a limited capacity of CSP in Niger, 44% of pesticide dealers are unlicensed. Also, the registered chemicals account for only 8%, while 38% of pesticides have incomplete labels and 6% are unlabeled [9]. In the same report, 27% of the tested pesticides did not stipulate the active ingredients and 30% was tagged to be of poor quality. There are myriads of issues associated with pesticides usage in Africa.

In Southeast Asia, the use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing rapidly. An annual increase in the import of pesticides is reported as 61% for Cambodia, 55% for Laos, and 10% for Vietnam [10]. In the past 50 years, China has become the

major pesticide manufacturing country, and these pesticides are chiefly used for rice production [11]. The use of pesticides in China has increased from 0.76 million tonnes in 1991 to 1.8 million tonnes in 2011 [11]. In terms of use, Japan is also one of the largest pesticide users in the world and has the biggest pesticide market in Asia [12].

In a survey involving seven European countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Finland, and Latvia on the usage of pesticides in the urban or non-agricultural amenities, it was observed that the infiltrate on of arable lands in Europe has occurred swiftly due to improved application of insecticides. This ultimately has resulted in the loss of biodiversity and heterogeneity of the arable lands and other landscapes [13, 14].

The European Union has developed definite imperative regulation regarding pesticides usage. These include:

